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[petera]

Was killing time last weekend wandering around a car boot sale and picked up a CSI Homevision Automation Controller. Was surprised to see it unopened. I asked the seller if I could have a look. Answer was "if you open it you take it". This was risky. What's in the box. Bit like an eBay purchase  .

Well to my surprise everything was as it should have been. Controller, thick manual, big chunky power supply and a lot of hard to get cables which were worth the purchase price alone. I never used one of these items before but I vaguely remember reading about them.

Well I was certainly surprised what I'd gotten for €10. Being based in Europe this was the PAL international version which was a +1. I had an XM10U (euro version of the TW523) lying about so I hooked it up to the CSI controller plug it in and everything was working. Two way x10 control.

I then fired up an old XP machine, downloaded the last known version of the Controller's software. That let me configure a serial connection on COM4. I used a serial2usb cable and now the XP machine and the controller are talking to each other via RS232. As a bonus it also has an IR receiver which worked out of the box.

Looking forward to playing with this old controller. Looks like it may have been an expensive piece of kit in its day. Does anyone else here use one or ever own one.

[JeffVolp]

I use a HomeVision controller to test every assembled XTB-IIR and XTB-523 that we sell.  It was an excellent piece of hardware - in the same class as the XTB products.

Jeff

[petera]

I use a HomeVision controller to test every assembled XTB-IIR and XTB-523 that we sell.  It was an excellent piece of hardware - in the same class as the XTB products.

Jeff

Real quality piece of equipment. Just reading up on it on the CSI website. I reckon it was quite expensive in its day. I imagine it was discontinued owing to the emergence of "cheap" controller equipment from the Far East.

It certainly had a lot of options to control a wide variety of technologies. The video output brings me back to the '80s. Blocky white text on a blue screen. RS232 control looks interesting and can be played with as does the two way x10 control.

I'll take it apart later to look at the digital/analogue input/output options.

[petera]

Managed to download and install HomevisionXL, a Homevision user designed Linux version of the controller's software. Running it on Ubuntu Xenial and it's quite impressive. Next target is the Raspberry Pi Zero.

Such a shame CSI discontinued manufacturing this controller. Fantastic setup for X10.

Is there any members still using this controller or ever used one. I know JeffVoip has so that definitely says something about it 

[Brian H]

Until you started this thread. I had never even heard of this controller.
Sounds like you got a great find.

[petera]

Until you started this thread. I had never even heard of this controller.
Sounds like you got a great find.

I have to say neither did I till I opened the box. The guy who sold it to me obviously didn't either.

The more I drill into it the more interesting it becomes. If you haven't read up on it here's the link http://www.csi3.com/homevis2.htm

X10, IR, and serial control all in the one box. It seemed to cover everything relevant at the time. I'm checking out the possibility of Ethernet too but I'd imagine that expansion module will be hard to come by.

I'll check back here with further progress. Maybe other members might have experience of it and could share their thoughts.

[brobin]

If you haven't already found it, you might find this site interesting:  http://www.primrosebank.net/auto/auto_hv.htm

[npaisnel]

I have just got one too,
Playing with it over a few days

Seems ideal to create an IR link to drive X-10 devices from a Harmony hub, Via HA bridge

How are you getting on with yours ?